What if we, as a society, could cut down on the incidence of mental illness by backing away from hitting, grabbing or pushing our children?

That’s a prospect raised by a new study in Pediatrics, which finds that harsh physical punishment increases the risk of mental disorders — even when the punishment doesn’t stoop to the level of actual abuse.

What qualifies as appropriate punishment is a hot-button topic among parents. The American Academy of Pediatrics opposes corporal punishment, but studies have shown that up to 80% of parents report that they rely on it to some extent. What constitutes physical punishment is also wide-ranging: everything from a light slap on the hand to an all-out whipping with a belt or a paddle.

“In the general population, there is a belief that physical punishment is O.K. as long as you’re not doing it in anger and you’re a warm and loving parent,” says Tracie Afifi, the study’s author and an assistant professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba in Canada. “But there’s no data supporting that.”

Afifi and colleagues decided to examine five forms of physical punishment — pushing, grabbing, shoving, slapping and hitting — that took place in the absence of even more severe acts of abuse or neglect such as punching, burning, physical neglect or sexual abuse. Other related research has not specifically included or excluded more severe types of abuse, meaning that the abuse — and not the grabbing or slapping — may be driving the relationship between physical punishment and mental disorders.

She did not examine spanking because it’s not easy to define: what’s considered spanking varies from parent to parent. But, she says, “a push is a push, and a grab is a grab.”

In the study, researchers analyzed more than 20,000 people in the U.S. who were age 20 or older: 1,258 who had experienced pushing, grabbing, shoving, slapping and hitting sometimes or very often, and 19,349 who reported they had experienced it rarely or never. They adjusted results for gender, race, marital status, education and a history of family dysfunction; if the person’s parents had drug problems or were hospitalized for mental illness, that could have affected their use of physical punishment.

Across the board, people who’d experienced physical punishment were more likely to experience nearly every type of mental illness examined. Their risk of mood disorders, including depression and mania, was 1.5 times greater than people who hadn’t been slapped or grabbed. The risk of depression alone was 1.4 times greater, which was the same rate for anxiety. People who’d been physically punished were 1.6 times more likely to abuse alcohol, and 1.5 times more likely to abuse drugs.

“There’s going to be lot of people that think that a parent absolutely needs to use physical force to raise a compliant child,” says Afifi. “It’s pretty well established that physical abuse has a negative impact on mental health, but this is showing the same effect even when you look at milder forms of physical force. This is saying that physical punishment should not be used on children of any age.”

George Holden, a professor of psychology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas who published research last year on the first real-time study of parents physically disciplining their kids, says Afifi’s findings fit into a “large constellation” of studies that show children whose parents use physical force are at greater risk for depression and anxiety. “This is yet another study documenting that this practice can result in unintended negative consequences,” says Holden. “Other studies have shown corporal punishment in childhood carries over to adulthood in terms of aggression, so there’s no reason why it wouldn’t in the area of mental health.”

Afifi hopes that “reasonable” parents will read about her research and decide to swear off physical punishment. Pediatricians can be part of the solution, talking to parents about alternative methods. “It’s never too late to stop,” she says, though she acknowledges a “cultural shift” needs to happen in order to turn the tide.

I am proof of this was beaten several times with a belt ages five to eleven also verbally abused and dunno what you call it when you give a gift then take it away it happened after my birthday and he smashed all my presents then drove me to a deserted place just to beat me with a belt 30 times.

I have had lower back issues after this and scared for life but hey I was bad and deserved it right .

I do have mental issues from this and other abuse my parent's split I was 11 my mom hated my dad and she would tell me I was just like him and to go live with him every hour of every day till I was 18. I had terrible non caring parents who should have never had kids I think they did cause they are sheep every one else had kids so why not them lets not ever hug our kids or tell them we care or even love you.

I am sure that any kind of physical punishment is difficult on the mind. I feel it is too difficult to generalize that all people have the same effect. I agree with CL about the depressed participants were probably more likely to remember the times they were physically punished than the non-depressed participants. I know I cannot remember any physical punishment when I was very young, but I know from family stories that I used to get into trouble a lot. I don't feel I am mentally compromised in any way. Now, take a friend of mine who can recall most times of punishment and I look at her mental soundness and she is much weaker than I am in that respect.

2. The more worrisome thing about this article is that it's what's called a retrospective study. People are asked to think back about previous experiences, and the correlations between their reports of those previous experiences and their current symptoms are examined. The success of this method depends on the participants being able to accurately report their previous experiences. In other domains it's been shown that people who are more depressed are more likely to remember and report negative early experiences than people who are not. So the effect in this study could be driven by the fact that depressed participants were more likely to remember the times they'd been grabbed or pushed than the non-depressed participants.

1. For all the "all this shows is correlation, not causation" people out there: Of course. The experimental manipulation that would let you get closer to "proving" the effect they're arguing for is unethical. You would have to randomly assign some children to get hit and others to not get hit. Not okay to begin with, and especially not okay if you suspect that the corporal punishment will lead to worse mental health outcomes later in life.

This study makes no sense. At all. That doesn't prove CAUSATION or even CORRELATION. Couldn't it be that children that already have a mental illness are more likely to be spanked? The spanking/etc. didn't cause the mental illness, but the mental illness caused the spanking/etc.

Take a child, who did receive justifiable corporal punishment, we'll use "spanking" which in my definition is a pop on the buttocks, for wrong-doing while growing up. Compare that child to another who did not receive corporal punishment, but instead received the "ignore effect", which is basically if a child is doing something annoying or out of order, you consistently ignore them each time, until it passes then politely "discuss" the outburst and why it is not necessary with the child.

Those two children, one who received a spanking and one who did not, grow up. Doesn't matter where, but now they are out of high-school. Are the odds of the child who received the "spankings" growing up becoming a criminal higher, or lower? And the child that received the "ignore effect"?

No one is questioning whether abuse causes mental illness or not. I am also not arguing that corporal punishment causes mental illness or not. I do however, believe that a defined structure for children are necessary. Many "experts" on child development will agree that hitting or smacking a child will cause the child to learn how to trust slower than those not hit or smacked. However, a child who is taught that when they do something bad, they will be ignored until the "act" is over with and then only receive basically a soft lecture should have a higher likelihood of ignoring the law, right? This leads into many other factors such as drug use and alcoholism and even aggressive criminal acts, because they've been taught, that the only consequence is being "talked" to.

I really am just not so sure what this study is really revealing that already isn't apparent. Over punishment? Yes, definitely could see that causing maybe some anxiety issues. Abuse, definitely causes severe mental illnesses. But from what I gather so far is that, when and if I "spank" my child, because they didn't obey the rules, I am pretty much causing them to have depression, anxiety issues, etc. Right?

So what does other children bullying my child do? That is something that is uncontrollable (in a sense). Wouldn't that cause my child to develop a mental illness - because of them being picked on for being different, or proper, or even not so proper.

I guess, the bottom-line that I am trying to get to is that in today's world (America in general), mental illnesses are on the rise. They've been on the rise for the past few years and have shown no sign of retreat. America simply isn't prepared well enough to cover what the mind is capable of doing and how it reacts due to certain situations or circumstances. So after all, everyone will have to deal with something at some point in their life that "may" cause a mental illness. Knowing when to get help is essentially the key. Prevention? I think there are preventative measures that could be taken to reduce the amount of mental health issues, but relying on the dissolve of corporal punishment, even at the lowest level, to end early development of mental illness? Well that's just a tiny minnow in the ocean on this issue.

I think that domestic corporal punishment is acceptable, but again parents themselves have to understand that such punishment should be aimed at the improvements in their children; rather then releasing office or business pressures on their innocent kids.

Not that I'm disagreeing with the general argument against corporal punishment made in this article (because I agree that there is no reason a parent should ever hit their child!), but I'm wondering if genes may play a part in the results. Did this study consider whether parents who abuse their children are more likely to have mental disorders themselves? If so, then their children could have simply inherited their parents' mental problems.

Do people who fiercely advocate spanking think there's some kind of conspiracy out there? What kind of benefit do you think other people are getting by making up these statistics? Hitting a child like their a dog works about the same on them as the dog. There is a fight or flight response. It works for that temporary moment then the dog becomes either aggressive and hardened or flighty and snappy. If you succeed enough over time in making them fearful enough of you, what do you think happens when they become teenagers and they can fight back? If they do something bad do you think grounding them is going to do anything by then? They're going to raise their middle finger and say TRY and stop me.

those who think you need to use corporal punishment are selfish and mean. Sure its effective, but that doesnt mean it is right. People treat their children like possesions. My child is amazingly confident , she says yes ma'am , please and thank you and never lashes out. only when she is tired or fed too much sugar does she throw a temper tantrum and she is 4. Your children are your legacy, your future and a peice of you. Respect them.

those who think you need to use corporal punishment are selfish and mean. Sure its effective, but that doesnt mean it is right. People treat their children like possesions. My child is amazingly confident , she says yes ma'am , please and thank you and never lashes out. only when she is tired or fed too much sugar does she throw a temper tantrum and she is 4. Your children are your legacy, your future and a peice of you. Respect them.

Here are some larger samples. The facts are clear, hitting children at best, is inneffective and at worst, leads to violent behavior. Rates of violence drop significantly when corporal punishment is banned from public schools. Because states have banned corporal punishment at different times, the result can be clearly shown to be causual.

"Studies show significantly more fatal school shootings took place in states that

How do they know that people with a predisposition toward mental illness didn't, as children, also act in a way that made their parents more likely to resort to corporal punishment? I'm not convinced they've established a causal link here.

I grew up with corporal punishment and have turned out to be perfectly fine. In fact, my parents' unwillingness to accept anything but my best has shaped me to be a better person. I think when hitting is objective - when the crime is extremely clear and stated so - can be beneficial. I have now moved to a country where it is an offence to raise one's hand against children and find many of my peers to be extremely unmotivated.

Um... so, if it's too difficult for the researcher to clearly define 'spanking' then exactly how competent of a researcher are they? One of the most important components of good research study design is developing clear and specific definitions for all relevant terms to be used in that study.

I'm hesitant to take the results interpretation seriously when the researcher's excuse for a lack of definition is hey, "a push is a push!" That's just lazy work.

Anger is a problem indicator. when punishing a child it really should not come from Anger. I think most children will respond to reason and there are only a very few who would need the more serious punishment. Talking about it and then spending time in 'time out' should be able to help most children.

I think that most children deep down want to be loved by their parents. And so they will seek out that love and that is why talking with reason should work.

You guessed correctly, I am NOT a parent. So you can take what I just said for what it is worth?

We often hear from those who fight to uphold this practice for those under the age of 18 (even to the blaming of the social maladies of the day on a supposed "lack" of it), but we rarely, if ever, find advocates for the return of corporal punishment to the general adult community, inmate population, military, or college campuses. Why is that?

Ask ten unyielding proponents of child/adolescent/teenage-only "spanking" about the "right" way to do it, and what would be abusive, indecent, or obscene, and you will get ten different answers.

These proponents should consider making their own video-recording of the "right way" to do it.

We often hear from those who fight to uphold this practice for those under the age of 18 (even to the blaming of the social maladies of the day on a supposed "lack" of it), but we rarely, if ever, find advocates for the return of corporal punishment to the general adult community, inmate population, military, or college campuses. Why is that?

Ask ten unyielding proponents of child/adolescent/teenage-only "spanking" about the "right" way to do it, and what would be abusive, indecent, or obscene, and you will get ten different answers.

These proponents should consider making their own video-recording of the "right way" to do it.

Guys whether you like it or not, I think parents even should punish their children to death if children are not disciplined properly by non-physical ways. Sometime, just for the sake of your dignity we must resort to any way to lead them to behave appropriately or let people around misbehaved children to live and not be bothered by them

What imbecile would do this kind of study and apply it to judicious use of corporal punishment?

If you smack kids around all the time and jerk them all over the place, of COURSE it's going to screw them up. Physical punishments were extremely effective aboard a ship (Lashings) simply because they were used only in extreme cases, done in front of everyone and made dreadful in the eyes of the men - but done RARELY. Kids aren't stupid. They can be introduced to the same level of dread of punishment in order to correct bad behaviors.

But it must be applied RARELY and the application must be extraordinary.

This study doesn't take judicious and careful applications of physical pain as a deterrence into account - especially if one has positive incentives for good behavior. In light of this, it's only reasonable to say, "Don't smack your kids around all the time", to which I would add, "Only do it if absolutely everything else you've tried has failed."

We are being bombarded by a seemingly continuous series of articles like this one that fail to distinguish between spanking and abusive treatment. No doubt the people behind this are intent on removing your right to make decisions about how to raise your own children. My wife and I had two daughters who occasionally defied us just to demonstrate that we had no power to tell them what to do. We tried all the silly fad "methods" (1-2-3 and all the rest) and they were useless. In such situations our girls responded ONLY to spanking. For example once our elder daughter ran out into the street repeatedly just to demonstrate that we had no power to tell her not to. We had a choice: demonstrate that we DID have the power, or let her discover for herself what it's like to get hit by a car. We chose to demonstrate the power. And yes, she never ran out into the street again. If someone had had the legal authority to prevent us from using our best judgment, perhaps our daughter would be dead today.

The failure of this article to distinguish between abusive punishment and controlled spanking renders it a piece of dangerous propaganda. We had two daughters who occasionally made a point of defying us just to demonstrate that we had no control over them. We tried all the silly "methods" (1-2-3 and all the rest) and they were useless. When our girls were in this mode they responded ONLY to spankings. One example was when our elder daughter ran out into the street just to demonstrate to us that we had no power not to tell her not to. We had a choice - demonstrate to her that we DID have the power to tell her not to, or let her discover for herself what it's like to get hit by a car. We chose the demonstration. And yes, she never ran out into the street again.

While I don't disagree with this article or the study it promotes, I do have a problem with people telling parents what not to do unless they're also going to recommend what to do. Teachers have a wide array of strategies to redirect and motivate kids without physically touching them, but parents only have whatever they learned from their own parents, which was often yelling, cussing, and spanking.

Actually read the article here people, it doesn't say anything about spanking or corporal punishment. The article only covered forms of hitting that were considered ABUSE. That is to say the study involved other forms of physical abuse that DID NOT INCLUDE SPANKING, DUHHH!!!!!

I try to never spank my children, but to use this article/study as proof that corporal punishment doesn't work defies logic.

If I'm reading this correctly, approximately 1.5 times as likely to develop major depression if subject to corporal punishment 'sometimes' or more, however that probability is still less than or equal to 0.1%.

I'm referring to table II from the original paper. I'm not sure if that P value is the probability of the above situation, or the probability that it is significantly different from less frequent corporal punishment.